Side pulls and underclings: holds that don't pull down

The hold that does not pull down

Early on, climbing makes sense in one direction. You find a hold, you pull down on it, you go up. Jugs reward that, and for a while it is enough. Then you meet a hold that faces sideways, or one that is upside down, and pulling down on it does nothing. Your hand greases off, your feet cut, and you come off a move that looked easy from the ground.

Those are side pulls and underclings, and they are not awkward versions of a normal hold. They are holds that want to be used in a particular direction, and once you learn to give them that direction they turn solid. The trick is never in the hand. It is in where you put the rest of your body.

How a side pull works

A side pull is a hold you pull sideways on rather than down. Picture a hold with its best edge facing to your right. If you stand square underneath it and pull down, your fingers skate off the rounded part. The hold has nothing for you in that direction.

Now move your body to the left of it and pull across, towards your centre. Suddenly the edge bites. You are loading the hold the way it faces, and the wall pushes back through your arm in a straight line. The hold has not changed. Your position has.

The whole skill is opposition. A side pull only feels secure when something is pulling the other way, and that something is usually a foot. Get a foot out wide on the opposite side, press into it, and your body hangs between the hand and the foot like a taut line. Climbers call it a layback when it is exaggerated, but the same idea runs through almost every side pull on the wall. Pull in with the hand, push out with the foot, and let the tension hold you on.

How an undercling works

An undercling is a hold you grab from below, palm up, and pull up into. They look hopeless until you use them, because the higher your hand sits the weaker an undercling feels, and the lower it sits relative to you the more powerful it becomes.

That is the key to the whole thing. An undercling pays you back when you get your feet high. Find the hold, take it palm up, then walk your feet up the wall until the undercling is around waist height. Now your arm can pull up and in against it, your body presses away, and you get a stable platform to reach from. Try to use the same hold with your feet low and your arm stretched above your head and it gives you almost nothing.

So the move is always feet first. See the undercling, get your feet up, stand into it, then reach through with the other hand while the undercling holds your body to the wall. Done well it is one of the most stable positions in climbing. Done with low feet it is one of the most desperate.

Reading which way a hold faces

Before you pull on anything, ask which direction it wants to be loaded. Most holds tell you if you look. The thickest, most positive part of the edge is the bit you want pointing towards your pulling direction. A hold with its good edge on the left is a right hand side pull. A hold scooped out underneath is an undercling waiting for high feet.

On the ground this is easy to practise. Look at a problem and name each hold out loud: down pull, side pull, undercling, pinch. Then plan where your body has to be to load each one properly. Most blown sequences are not a strength problem. They are a climber pulling down on a hold that was never going to reward it.

Drilling it

Pick something a couple of grades below your limit and climb it twice. The first time, use every hold as a straight down pull and feel how many moves fight back. The second time, look for the side pulls and underclings and set your body up for them. Wide foot and pull across for the side pulls. High feet and stand in for the underclings. The same route will feel like a different climb.

A good standalone drill is to find a single side pull at a comfortable height and move your feet around underneath it. Notice how the hold feels solid when your weight hangs opposite it and useless when you stand square below. That contrast is the lesson, and once your body knows it you stop wrestling holds and start reading them.

The habit worth building

Strong fingers help, but reading direction helps more, and it improves far faster. The climbers who flow through steep, holds-everywhere sequences are not gripping harder than you. They are giving every hold the angle it asks for, then letting opposition between hand and foot do the holding.

Log the moves that keep spitting you off and look at the hold you were on. More often than not it was a side pull you tried to pull down on, or an undercling you used with low feet. Fix the direction, fix your feet, and the move quietly solves itself.